Thursday, 22 April 2010

As can be seen in this shot, my Taig lathe has a dial gauge mounted under the headstock that I use to measure carriage travel. The mounting block also includes provision for a stop rod. A web surfer asked me recently to post some more detailed photos of the mounting.

The block itself is L-shaped. The two cap screws pass through and into the T-slots in the headstock. The thumbscrew was the one that came with the lathe. It holds the stop rod (a piece of 0.250 silver steel/drill rod) in place with the aid of a brass pad.

The dial gauge is mounted on a rod which passes through the hole pictured below. A clamping mechanism is devised from a slot and another cap screw.

Here is the mount for the dial gauge. The rod is held on the block via a grub (set) screw, and the dial is mounted via another cap screw.

I plan to use a butane burner in this boiler. One of the common ways to light these is to turn on the gas and put the match at the top of the chimney and hope you retain most of your eyebrows and that the resultant pop-back does not extinguish the burner. I was looking for a better way so I thought why not a door?

Since it will be painted, I am making it out of aluminium. Here is a shot on the mill whilst cutting the 1.5" radius so that it fits the boiler shell.

Here is is transferred to the small mill to cut all the bits that don't look like a firebox door.

Here we have just finished cutting out the centre and the two bosses that will be the top and bottom hinges.